"'Precision-guided missile factories' are being built in Lebanon and Syria, and unless the UN stops them, Israel will.
That, more or less, was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Jerusalem on Monday...
Well, when Israeli leaders say they won't 'accept' something, they usually mean it - the country sets red lines and enforces them. But the UN? Could it actually help prevent a looming war? Not with its current blasé attitude...
The UN won't disarm Hezbollah.
Italians, Irish and other Europeans, the backbone of the UN force, won't risk life or limb confronting an organization their governments are wishy-washy about. EU policy bans Hezbollah's "military wing" but not its 'political wing,' a make-believe distinction the group's leaders and founders have long rejected.
But wait, 'The Lebanese-Israeli border has been mostly quiet for 11 years, which means UNIFIL is successful after all,' a top European diplomat told me last week. No, sorry. What it means is that Hezbollah is better prepared for the next war..."